“Things I Never Knew”… Fredrick Douglass Edition…

October 7, 2021 by  
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

It’s amazing how one can work intimately with history for years-on-end and still find so much you don’t know – and I’m certainly a case in point.  I find that after 2 years of exploring (technically called working) at RareNewspapers, I am still surprised & delighted on nearly a daily basis.  Just yesterday, as I began to dig into the background of one of America’s heroes, Frederick Douglass, I discovered he had served as U.S. Marshal –  a fact which may have been known to many of the readers of the History’s Newsstand blog, but was new(s) to me:

“When Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was elected president, he named Douglass as United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, the first person of color to be so named. The Senate voted to confirm him on March 17, 1877.[147] Douglass accepted the appointment, which helped assure his family’s financial security.[51] During his tenure, Douglass was urged by his supporters to resign from his commission, since he was never asked to introduce visiting foreign dignitaries to the President, which is one of the usual duties of that post. However, Douglass believed that no covert racism was implied by the omission, and stated that he was always warmly welcomed in presidential circles.” (Wiki)

I love how I get to spend my days!

 

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Comments

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!